Brewers’ bullpen is worst since ’06

Former Brewers manager Ken Macha learned from Whitey Herzog that to be a successful skipper in the Major Leagues, you need a good sense of humor and a good bullpen.

At the moment, the current Brewers manager has neither.

In Sunday’s 11-10 loss to the Nationals, the Brewers entered the eighth inning with a 7-3 lead, lost it, then entered the ninth leading 9-7 after back-to-back home runs by Norichika Aoki and Carlos Gomez. And yet, they lost.

“Inexplicable,” said John Axford, the former closer. “It’s tough to describe what’s happening.”

Sunday’s game extended a terrible stretch for Brewers relievers, who squandered leads in all three games at Philadelphia last week in a sweep that pushed the team toward trading Greinke to the Angels for prospects. They have 20 blown saves this season, most in the Majors.

Axford struggled to describe the Brewers bullpen’s failures, “especially after the run we had last year, mainly between ‘Frankie’ [Rodriguez] and myself. We had discussions throughout the year, trying to maybe pull answers from each other to see what’s going on, and we can’t explain it.

“Maybe it is just a domino effect right now. Last year, when things were going great, they just kept going. When someone stepped in a hole, we pulled them right out of it. … Right now, it seems like if someone steps in that hole, we’re digging it even deeper for them and we’re all jumping in. It’s not really working out.”

This Brewers’ bullpen is the team’s worst since 2006, when 23 different men threw a pitch in relief for Milwaukee including the likes of Joe Winkelsas, who was working as a trash collector before giving baseball another shot, and Chris Demaria, Chris Mabeus and Allan Simpson. None of those players ever appeared in the Majors again.

That ’06 bullpen combined for a 5.03 ERA, worst in the National League. After combining to surrender nine Nationals runs in 5 1/3 innings on Sunday, this year’s bullpen has a 4.80 ERA. Brewers relievers entered Sunday ranked 27th in the Majors in walks allowed, 28th in relief ERA, 29th in batting average against and worst in blown saves.

Now the Brewers are making changes.

They added veteran Minor Leaguer Jim Henderson to the mix on Thursday and he delivered three scoreless outings during the Nationals series, including a one-out stint Sunday that bailed Rogers out of a sixth-inning jam. Another new arm will be in uniform by Monday, when the Brewers continue their homestand against the rebuilding Astros.

Stay tuned for that new name. It was not clear on Sunday when the Brewers would make their announcement.

Do you have a spam concern on this site; I also am a blogger, and I was asking yourself your scenario; we now have created some great strategies and we are searching to exchange solutions with other folks, be certain to blast me an e-mail if planning to pursue.

I precisely needed to appreciate you all over again. I’m not certain what I might have taken care of without those s?ecrets documented by you on such subject. It previously was a real fearsome condition in my view, but seeing a professional technique you treated that forced me to leap with fulfillment. I am just happy for the service and thus have high hopes you comprehend what an amazing job you are always undertaking educating many people through your webblog. Probably you haven’t encountered all of us.

Definitely believe that that you stated. Your favorite justification seemed
to be at the net the simplest factor to take note of. I say
to you, I certainly get annoyed even as
folks consider worries that they plainly do not know about.
You managed to hit the nail upon the top and outlined out the
entire thing without having side effect , folks can take a signal.
Will probably be back to get more. Thanks

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.